Kindle Swindle

Help us let Amazon shoppers know what a Swindle the Kindle is by tagging it and Kindle ebooks that user DRM with the phrase kindle swindle.

If an ebook on Amazon does not have DRM, then please do not tag it as such. We want to encourage and support authors who are on our side and are willing to sell their books without DRM. You can tag ebooks without DRM with the tag "drmfree" (read more about Amazon authors' "drmfree" effort).

If you haven't done so already, read the blog post to find out more about the Kindle and DRM.

Amazon.com, perhaps the largest internet retailer, has a system of "tagging" products on its US site. You can look at a product and add a tag that describes it. As products get tagged over and over again with a particular tag, that tag surfaces to the top of the list, and displays in larger text in some views. There is also a page for pictures and discussions of the tag.

Amazon makes it very easy to tag pages if you have javascript enabled.

Go to a product page.

Press "tt".

Enter the tags: kindle swindle, defectivebydesign, drm

If javascript is not enabled pressing "tt" will fail. So instead, merely enter the above tags under the section titled "Tags customers associate with this product."

After you have tagged some products, join in on the conversation at one of the following Amazon forums:

All the international Amazon websites allow customers to review products. Review a DRM product NOW as a way to warn others of the problems they may face because of DRM. Once you have reviewed a product you can post the link to it here, to encourage other DefectiveByDesign crew members to rate your review. If you see a product review that points out the DRM problems you can also rate that
review so others will see it. We encourage you to put a link to your review in a comment on this page so others can go ahead and rate your comment!

We don't want to encourage you to get an Amazon account if you don't already have one*, but if you do have an account, then here is a chance for you to use it for the benefit of others. Log in now, start searching and start tagging!

* We do not advocate the use of Amazon, or the creation of Amazon accounts for the purpose of shopping, there are serious privacy concerns about how Amazon collects data from users.